matter 3. In their Obligation to believe and the aggravation of their Misery by not believing The Devils because they must be damned are not commanded to believe in Christ nor is their punishment heightned by their not believing but miserable Men who by this Decree have no more liberty to escape Hell than the Devil must yet be tied to believe in Christ and have their Torments increased if they believe not May we not say Where was the sounding of the Lord's Bowels and his Mercy Were they not restrained Isa 63. 15. Now tho I grant you that God's Mercy is his own and he might give it to whom he please I do also grant that when Man had sinned God was not obliged but was absolutely free and at perfect liberty whether he would shew Mercy to any or not The Love of God in Christ was undeserved undesired and every way free indeed neither had it been unmerciful if God had made no provision for fallen Man But now seeing he was pleased to enter into a Covenant of Peace with Man tho under no constraint or Obligation and to give his Son a Ransom not for a few but all as a means whereby his poor Creatures might be saved and hath promised Mercy without exception should be vouchsafed to all that believe in his Son and hath bound it with an Oath that he desireth not the death of a Sinner that no cruelty is in him but that he is a God gracious and merciful thereby to beget in us such amiable thoughts of himself as might incline us to love him with all our heart and strength and without the least scruple resign up our selves to his Will Now I say since God who was absolutely free hath made such Promises of Mercy to all that believe in his Son this his Promise binds him to perform it he cannot deny himself he 's not like unto frail Man he will not eat his own words so that now he is not at liberty to deny Mercy to those to whom he in his Word hath promised to shew Mercy neither can he do it for we may modestly affirm there are some things God cannot do God cannot lie he cannot deny himself neither can he deal unfaithfully and unjustly in his Promises nor go contrary to his Will revealed in his Word so till you prove by the Word of God that he hath made no provision for the Salvation of all Men by the death of Christ all you say proves nothing neither do you yet shew me where the great Attribute of God's Mercy takes place upon those for whom Christ did not die Philet Doth not the Mercy of God wonderfully appear in this that when Man had sinned and thereby run himself so far in debt beyond any possibility to pay but was liable to have been eternally a Prisoner without any redemption from thence till he had paid the utmost Farthing neither Men nor Angels being able to make God amends for the wrong Man had done him Psal 49. 7 8. And whereas God being the most Soveraign Lord and no ways a Debter to any of his Creatures being not constrained by any inward Necessity or outward Force to shew mercy to any being wholly at his own choice whether he would shew Mercy to any having cause enough to cast off Man for his disobedience as he did the fallen Angels doth it not argue and prove more abundantly the rich Grace and Goodness of God in providing for the Salvation of a few than in making no provision for any but leaving them to perish in their Sins Philad 'T is true 't is an act of Grace and Mercy for God to make provision for the Salvation of any by Christ and to cast his Love upon any of the degenerate Sons of Adam when he passed by the Apostate Angels being invested with a power to shew Mercy to whom he please But certainly if to shew Mercy to a few amongst the many millions of millions of poor perishing Creatures renders God gracious and merciful how prevailing must that Love be which hath made such rich and full provision for the Salvation of all Men who unless they wilfully neglect so great Salvation shall most certainly be saved for if the providing for the Salvation of a few out of many renders him most gracious and lovely then if he had refused to make provision for any certainly the greater the number for whom this provision was made is the more lovely and gracious doth God appear Pray take heed you do not bring your Soul under guilt by denying Christ's Death for all which is the greatest illustration of his Love and Mercy to Sinners for in my understanding 't is a great injury done to the Goodness and Mercy of God to affirm that he hath eternally decreed the reprobation of all mankind except a very few in comparison of the rest Mar. None can be damned but those whose damnation God wills to glorify his Justice for God wills the Salvation of all that are saved and he wills the Damnation of all that are damned and tho it is certain that the Lord is gracious and full of compassion and of great mercy yet he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth Rom. 9. 18. It 's true there is such infinite Mercy in God that he could have pardoned all the Angels that sinned and could have saved all Adam's Posterity if he had pleased there might have been no Hell no place of Torment for Devils or Men if he had pleased there might have been no place but Heaven for all the Angels and all the Children of Men to sing Hallelujahs to Eternity but we must not order what God shall do how he shall exert and put forth his Mercy but let his Grace and Mercy be adored for ever in that he saves any that have sinned and his holy Justice ador'd in punishing so many with Eternal Damnation for Sin And God hath his Glory not only from them that are saved but also from them that perish in the one the Glory of his Grace in the other the Glory of his Justice Philad Who questions these things but you still avoid the Question so often urged viz. Wherein the great Attribute of God's Mercy takes place upon those for whom Christ did not die Philet You asked me if I thought one Attribute of God eat up another And I may ask you this Question whether you think God is made up of Mercy without any Justice Philad No I do not think so I believe that Justice and Mercy were essentially in God before all time and both beloved and favoured by him and to maintain the favour and love God bore to Justice he hath caused whole Nations to drink of the Cup of his Wrath in this he threw the sinful down from Heaven drowned the old World rained Fire and Brimstone out of Heaven upon Sodom c. yea such love doth God bear to Justice that not only Men and Angels Citys
to believe in him or to cast himself upon him for Salvation no more than the fallen Angels Now either Christ shed his Blood for all with an intent to save them unless they be their own destroyers or to damn them or for nothing pray tell me which of these three things Christ intended in dying for all Philet I cannot say to save all Philad For what then Philet Why truly I believe all that Christ did for the Reprobate was to effect for them the good things of this Life Philad But doth he not give his Grace to all Philet Yea common Grace Philad For what use is it given Philet For no use in respect of Eternal Life all that it effects for them is to make their Condemnation in Hell the greater or as some say if they use it well the lighter Mar. Others beside the Elect may have the inlightning and conviction of the Spirit and God hath wise and holy Ends in it to restrain some of them from being Persecutors of his Church and to restrain them from gross Idolatry and such-like Sins whereby they are less punished in Hell but if they abuse these common Graces it will make their condemnation in Hell the greater Philad Then was Christ's Death rather grievous than gracious and Christ came not that they might have life more abundantly but that they might have Hell and Damnation more abundantly Blush O ye Heavens at this How cruel do you represent the God of Love For if Christ shed his Blood for all and yet did not intend Salvation to all then he must needs shed his Blood not for them but against them and so God gave his Son to die for the condemnation of the World contrary to our Saviour's Expressions John 3. 17. 12. 47. 1. 29. So that here can be no potent Argument used to perswade all Men to love and live to him for he that shall pay for the ease and benefit of another what was sufficient to have eased me as well as him and yet shall neglect me in such a Paiment and leave me in misery when he might without the least trouble or charge to himself above what he voluntarily put himself upon for the sake of others have relieved me and of miserable made me happy what reason is there that I should wholly live to him who wholly neglected me in my greatest need or that he should expect service or thanks for doing nothing 'T is a sensless conceit to think Men are engaged in any Bond of thankfulness or service unto Christ for dying sufficiently for them unless he died intentionally also Philet What do you believe Christ shed his Blood intentionally to save all then if all be not saved Christ must miss of his Intention God shall be frustrated of his Design and Jesus Christ be defeated of that excellent Honour provided by his Father for him Now if one of those that Christ died with an intent to save should miscarry why not another and consequently all and so by this God's Counsel and Christ's Honour must be laid in the Dust Mar. For all you make such a noise about Christ's dying for all Adam's Posterity yet do you really deny that Christ died for any Man or Woman in the World in a true Scripture-sense for unless Christ died so for Persons as to make satisfaction for all their Sins and to purchase saving Grace here and Glory hereafter to be infallibly bestowed upon them all you talk of universal Redemption by Christ is a universal Nothing Philad It may very well be conceived that God may intend the Salvation of all Men by Jesus Christ and yet not all Men saved nay should all Men prove so neglective of themselves as voluntarily to deprive themselves of that great Salvation which Christ out of his great Love hath provided for them yet it doth not follow from hence that the Counsel or Design of God should thereby miscarry nor Christ's Honour be laid in the dust because of the wilful folly of Men to forsake their own Mercy and destroy themselves see Isa 49. 5. And now saith the Lord that formed me from the Womb c. Tho Christ was sent to save and make Israel blessed and as the Apostle saith Acts 3. ult Hath raised up Jesus and hath sent him to bless you and to turn every one of you from your evil ways here you see it was God's Mind to gather Israel and to turn them from their Sins yet all Israel was not gathered nor turned from their Sins yet no disparagement to Christ nor a defeating the Counsel of God Indeed if it had been the Design and Intent of God that the saving Benefits intended to Sinners by the Obedience and Sufferings of Christ should immediately become theirs upon the bare shedding of his Blood and that therefore God must needs pardon the Sinner and bring him in by head and shoulders that is by a strong and irresistible hand save him whether he will or no or whether they repent of their Sins believe in him or continue in impenitency then indeed if any should miscarry here would be a defeating of the Counsel and Intention of God but seeing that as the Grace and Mercy of God in Christ to Sinners is absolutely free so is the Lord free to apply the Merits of his Son's Blood to whom and in what way and upon what terms he in his Wisdom thinks fit for we must not conceive that God intended to save Man upon any terms or without any provision or exception at all but to put the World into a capacity of Salvation by removing those grand Obstacles which stood in the way of Mercy and obstructed its communication to the Offender and to afford unto the Sons and Daughters of Men means and opportunities to repent and believe and consequently to be saved so that whensoever Christ is faithfully and effectually preached to Men and the Holy Spirit convinces Men of Sin in order to their Salvation God obtains his end and intent concerning their Salvation whether they come to be saved or no so Christ is said 1 John 2. 2. to be the Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World it doth not therefore follow that the Sins of the whole World are so actually and compleatly atoned by him that they shall never be charged against them but that which Christ offered in order to atoning the Sins of the whole World is so full of Virtue and withal is so propounded and held forth by the Lord unto the whole World that if any Man's Sins remain actually unpardoned 't is through their voluntary neglect of this Sacrifice not from any intention on God's part that their Sins should not be atoned as well as others Many more such Testimonies I might add Dr. Holmes upon John 6. 37. pag. 13. saith That all the Sins of Mankind are become venial in respect of the Price paid by Christ unto the Father c. But all do not obtain actual remission
break off at this time only give me leave to ask you and your Friend Martha this Question viz. What is the reason you go about to perswade your selves and others that God is so severe with the greatest part of Mankind as to leave them in the Fall without giving his Son to die for them but leaving them to perish is it to make your own Salvation doubtful for if Christ died for scarce one in a thousand what grounds have you to believe Christ died for you or that you were elected and chosen to Life Philet I do not question but I was beloved of God and chosen in Christ before the Foundation of the World Philad I suppose that you must needs have a high Opinion of your self that you are one of the Darlings of Heaven one beyond all possibility of miscarrying one that shall never behold the angry Countenance of the Almighty otherwise I believe you would be glad to hear the joyful Tidings of Peace and Reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ for tho you represent God at so dreadful a rate towards others yet you would not have him appear in such Wrath and Fury to your self nay your Doctrine would not be so readily imbraced by so many if they thought they themselves were of that number that God had by an absolute Decree of Reprobation shut under Wrath from all possibility of obtaining Life and Salvation And should the Lord awaken your Conscience under a sense of the dread and horror of your being absolutely rejected from Grace and Glory from having any saving benefit by the Death of Christ this might so amaze you that all Means and Arguments used to comfort you might be of no value your Opinion walks Antipodes to all words of comfort What would it avail you then at such a time to tell you of God's great Love to his Elect and that he had such a Love for some few of the degenerate Sons of Adam that rather than they should perish he would give his Son a Ransom for them and with him give them Faith and Repentance and by a strong hand of irresistible Grace carry them through this World to Glory but that far the greater number are left of the Lord to die and perish for the manifestation of his Justice and Displeasure against Sin Would this fasten any comfort upon you when you behold the Lord's angry Countenance only speaking Blood and Ruin to you Come Philetus this hath been so dreadful to many that they have run some to the Sword and others to the Halter Now seeing that you make the number of the Elect so small as not one in a hundred or one in a thousand how can you have any comfortable assurance that you are one of those that Christ died for unless you prove it by his dying for all and so consequently for you including a part in the whole Philet What rotten stuff have we here at what a pitiful rate do you talk would you have me believe Christ died for me because he died for the whole World if I had no other assurance and hopes for Heaven than this I should be in a miserable state I injoy saving Grace there is an inward Work of God upon my Heart and I am really brought over to Christ this is a better proof that I am not one of those that are left in the Fall to perish but one of those Christ died for Philad I own that there are Marks and Signs which may be sufficient proof of a Person 's Regeneration and may be a good Mark of Election and a sound Evidence for Heaven Rom. 8. 16. the Spirit witnessing with our Spirits But now in this weighty concern of our Souls and Salvation nothing ought to be believed by any but what they have grounds to believe from the Word of God and from that inward Witness which if true never contradicts but is always sutable and agreeable to the Word Now since by your Doctrine the Death of Christ did not extend to one of a thousand how is it possible for you to know that Christ died for you unless it be revealed in the Word of God since he that Christ did or did not die for must be built upon the Testimony of the Lord therefore I say shew me if you can a proof from the Scripture that Christ died for you or if you cannot do that shew me that Man now living in the World for whom Christ did not die Philet I cannot shew you my Name written in the Scriptures nor no place that saith that he died for I. S. but if I can prove my self a Believer I can prove that I am no Reprobate but an Elect Person and consequently one that Christ died for for believing is an infallible Fruit of Election Philad But what if you mistake and think you have true Faith when you have not there is a Faith which is only sancy nay mere presumption a Faith besides the Word of God 't is easy for Men to deceive themselves and others with false Appearances and deceivable Marks in this case since all saving Graces in the Saints have their Counterfeits in Hypocrites yea oftner furnished and set forth with more gaudy paint in Hypocrites than real Christians the Devil can shew himself to be an Angel of Light But come to your Marks of Election Are you the Child of believing Parents this is not sufficient to prove you in the Love and Favour of God for so was Cain Ishmael and Esau yet you say they were reprobated Have you been baptized and so initiated into the visible Church of Christ so have many thousands who by their Conversation shew themselves to be of the Synagogue of Satan Have you done Miracles so did Jannes and Jambres yet they were Cheats Do you outwardly partake of the Lord's Table so do many that have no part in him as Judas Do you preach the Word to others prophesy in Christ's Name so may many to whom Christ will say Depart you cursed and while they preach Salvation to others miss it themselves Philet These are outward Marks which may very well stand with Hypocrisy mine is a supernatural spiritual and inward Work the saving Effect of the sanctifying Spirit of God What say you to Faith is not that a Fruit of the Spirit Philad Yea true justifying Faith is but what would you prove that Christ died for you because you are a Believer Philet No Christ did not die for me and elect me because I believe but because God elected me and gave his Son to die for me therefore I believe I being to prove that God loved me and gave his Son to die for me and that Faith is a Fruit of God's electing Love Philad But what if your Faith be the Faith of the Hypocrite which will perish Simon Magus Acts 8. 13. believed the Doctrine preached by Philip and professed his Faith publickly by being baptized in Water according to our Lord's Command and yet in the
Death those Infants and Sucklings no more than to take away by Death many thousands which daily die through the World for Death reigns over all and when Infants are taken away either by a Natural Death or in any cruel manner 't is for Sin even that of Adam's yea many times their own Parents Sin hastens the Death of the Child and in Temporals very often the Children suffer for the Father's fault not only in the good things of this Life but also Death it self as in the Old World and in the overthrow of Sodom and are slain with the Sword as in this Case and likewise in those common Calamities which have befallen Nations and Cities But what will any one dare to say that such Infants and Sucklings are damned Who can forbear trembling at such a dreadful conceit And surely you that hold than Infants have sin enough from Adam to damn them to Hell had need bring good Scripture-proof for such a dreadful Doctrine But I need say no more to this than to refer you to what Mr. Grantham hath writ upon this Subject in his Answer to Mr. Petto and Mr. Firmin in his Presumption no Proof and his Infants Advocate First and Second Parts where if you be not wedded to your Opinion or blinded with Prejudice you will see that though all are guilty of Adam's Sin Rom. 5. 14. yet Infants by the presentment of the Satisfaction of Christ are and shall be sav'd for the free Gift cometh upon all Rom 5. 18. Mar. Come leave this Philetus you may easily perceive that Philadelphus owns that rotten and corrupt Opinion of universal Redemption a grand piece of Popery Philet Yea I see he 's an Arminian and I doubt a Free-willer too which is an old Pelagian Heresy and hath been condemned for an Error long since by the best and most knowing Christians Philad This is but the Devil's subtilty and delusion to hood-wink Peoples Eyes and to draw on a Vizor upon the lovely Face of true Religion to make it extremely deformed that so People may start at the naming of it Mod. Come pray let us have no Heats Philad There shall be none for me yet methinks they deal in our Day and Time by those that own the Truths of the Lord much like the barbarous Pagans did by the Christians under the persecuting Emperors who that they might have some Pretence to put them to death loaded them with odious Names and Imputations as if all the Troubles that were in the World happened for their Sakes As may be seen in Tertullian's Apology for the Christians Or as they did when they put them to death in their publick Theater they put upon them the Skin of some Savage Beast or put them into the shape of Monsters such as the nature of Man has the most Antipathy against that they might be the more excited to destroy them and the more expos'd to the fury of the Dogs Even so the noise of Arminians Pelagians Popery Free-willers and I know not what sounds so terrible to the Ears of some that they neither will nor dare examine either the Writings or Opinions of those that differ from them by the Word of God Mod. Neither will nor dare for what reason Philad Why only their Teachers whom they admire have drawn them into a dislike of the Truth of God by putting the Name of Ignominy and Reproach upon them What tho the Papists hold universal Redemption and are so unhappy to hold this part of Truth in unrighteousness Doth it therefore cease to be a Truth Or must I be ashamed or afraid to own it because held for a Truth by them May I not as well renounce the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament yea God and Christ too lest I should be accounted a Papist The Devil held that Christ was the Holy One of God and may not I do so too It will not excuse any in the Rejection of any Truth to say the Papists hold it Tho it was told Paul Acts 28. 22. That this Sect was every-where spoken against yet it did not turn him out of the way or make him out of love with the Truths of God neither ought it to do any and tho you may call this Truth Popery Arminianism c. yet was it owned for a Truth before Popery or James Arminius was heard of or had any being in the World and is indeed the ground of all Saving-Truth and Soul-establishing Comfort since the Foundation of the World and the contrary to it will be found to appear rotten and unsound having no firm footing in the Word of God let it be varnish'd over with never such dresses of Words or pretence of Zeal thereby to make the Face of it shine in the Eyes of others And I must tell you I look upon it to be a piece of daring Pride in any that shall confidently attempt to set bounds and limits to God's infinite Wisdom and Goodness acted towards all Men in the death of his Son Philet Well I am one of those that hold that God looking upon Man in the Fall did set his Love upon some of the fallen Race chusing some to eternal Life and Salvation for which he gave his Son to die for them and rejected others and never afforded them an Object to believe in nor power to believe but hath left them to perish Philad Pray prove what you affirm if you can Philet That God chuseth some to Life and leaveth others in the Fall of his meer Will and Pleasure I prove it by the Instance of Jacob and Esau Rom. 9. 13. As it is written Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated And this was done before they were born the one elected to eternal Life and the other reprobated to eternal Death and this at the meer Will and Pleasure of God Philad I know it is concluded from this Text that Esau in Person was damned but this is but Mens Rashness and Presumption there is not the least Syllable in all the word of God that I know of for Persons to ground such a Belief or from whence to draw such a dreadful Conclusion that Esau should be damned eternally Love and Hatred in this Text may be with respect to Temporal Blessings and so Esau may be said to be hated and Jacob loved because to Jacob was given the fruitful Land of Canaan and to Esau was given the barren Country of Mount Seir Or Love and Hatred may be with respect to Christ the promised Seed and so Jacob was separated or sanctified to be the Fore-father of Christ according to the Flesh and Esau with respect to that rejected and so was but a common or profane Person Now this was one end of Circumcision to distinguish the Family of whom Christ should be born and to keep that People of whom the Messiah was to come unmixt from the idolatrous Nations Now Esau very justly lost that Blessing for selling his Birth-Right at so base a Price for
17. John 15. 19. but if by the World be meant the Elect only then it will follow that God gave his Son to dye for those that stood in no need of him for God by Virtue of his Absolute Prerogative might pardon Sinners without the Death of his Son Now for you that hold there was an absolute Election and an absolute Reprobation consider'd under the Fall and that without respect to Faith in Christ on the one hand or disobedience on the other what do you do but overthrow the Truth and real Expiation of their Sins by the Death of Christ for them For if God in his Elective Love did in the very Act of Election freely and of his meer good Will and Pleasure irrevocably assign and give to his Elect Justification and Salvation then Christ could not die to purchase these things for them because they were theirs truly and of right before and so he needed not die to bring those into Covenant with God and to make them near by his Blood and to make them dear Children to God who were all this before for those that were Elected unto Life upon the account of their being absolutely Elected to Salvation they are likewise upon the same account in actual favour with God and already beloved of him with the highest Love and such as is peculiar to those that are the Sons of God But again if by the word World be understood the Elect only then this word whosoever must needs imply that some of the Elect might possibly not believe and so Christ must be supposed to speak at no better a rate of Wisdom and Sense than thus God so loved the world of Believers that whosoever of the world of Believers believe on him shall not perish Nay further if there be Salvation in Christ for none but the Elect in your sense then it is not true that whosoever believes in him shall be saved But that it cannot be meant of the Elect only read the two preceding Verses 14 15. with this whole Verse and the words following for as Moses lifted up the Serpent c. and Ver. 17. for God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World If then we must understand the Elect here by the World then we may read the words thus God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the Elect but that the Elect should be saved this was to affirm that which none was likely to deny or ever trouble themselves or the World about But again if by the World we must needs understand the Elect only then will the Parallel between Moses's lifting up the Serpent in the Wilderness and Christ's being lifted up upon the Cross run very lame for Moses did not lift up the Serpent with an intent that none should look upon it and receive healing by it save a small parcel but that whosoever was stung might look upon it and that whosoever did look upon it should receive healing thereby Numb 21. 8. Now you will hold that all without exception are stung with Sin will you not Philet Yea I do Philad Very well then unless Christ be lifted up with an intent that every Man might believe on him and every one that should believe on him should be saved by him he could not be said to be lifted up for the universal benefit of all those that were stung with Sin as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness for the benefit of all that were stung with the fiery Serpent Thus you may see that by the World must needs be meant the whole Lump of Mankind and those that take it otherwise do greatly eclipse the Mercy Love and Goodness of God to all his Creatures Very well Musculus upon this place John 3. 15 16. by World understands the Universe of Mankind so that here his love of the World and his love of Man is the same After the same manner it is in this Redemption of Mankind whereof we spake that Reprobates and desperately wicked Men partake not of it 'T is not through any defect of the Grace of God nor is it meet for the sake of the Sons of Perdition it should lose the Glory and Title of a Universal Redemption since it is prepared for all and all are called to it De Redemption Gen. humani Yea Calvin himself upon this place with other more antient and modern Expositors take this word World in a universal sense But take another Scripture 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself Philet Well pray read out the whole Verse and you may see cause to believe that by the World is there meant the Elect because he says not imputing their Trespasses Now it is plain he doth impute the Sins of all Men to them but the Elect only but unto them he doth not impute Sin therefore he reconciles unto himself none other but those he doth not impute Sin to which are the Elect. Besides the word World signifieth only some part of Men in the World and not the intire Universality of Men as Luke 2. 1. Acts 19. 27. Rev. 13. 3. Yea World is put sometimes for those that believe and are converted The Bread of God is he that cometh down from Heaven and giveth Life to the World that is to the Elect to Believers of all ranks throughout the whole World and no more is intended in any such-like Expressions Again John 14. 31. That the World may know that I love the Father And John 17. 21. That the World may believe that thou hast sent me By the World here we are to understand such as shall be saved Philad I know the word World signifies only some part of the World but where do you find the Elect called the World in opposition to those that are Enemies and Strangers unto God but it is rather put for the Wicked who are the greatest part of the World as John 1. 10. and 7. 7. 14. 17. 15. 19. 16. 20. 17. 9 14. 1 Cor. 11. 32. 1 John 3. 1. 4. 5. 5. 4 5. Hence the Devil is called the Prince of the World John 12. 31. 14. 30. 16. 11. But that this 2 Cor. 5. 19. cannot be meant only of the Elect may be proved from the word reconciling Reconciliation signifieth a making those Friends that were before at variance Now how can it be said That God was in Christ reconciling to himself those with whom he is not nor ever was offended Nay he was so far from being offended with them that he loved them with such a Love that he did absolutely purpose from the Fall which was long before the coming of Christ in the Flesh to confer Eternal Life upon them Besides the Apostle is not there speaking of any inward Act of God upon the Souls of Persons whereby they are brought to believe in Christ whereby they come to witness their Peace with God Being justified by Faith we have Peace with
are sanctified an unholy thing and make all the Precepts of the Gospel uncertain whether they be the Will of God or not or whether Christ when he prayed to his Father for his People or for Sinners prayed as a Mediator or as Man only yea give footing to that Opinion which begins to evidence it self too much in many even denying the personal Union of God and Man in Jesus Christ in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily Col. 2. 9. which did influence and give a value and worth to all things done for us by the Manhood and therefore his Righteousness and his Blood was called the Righteousness and Blood of God Acts 20. 28. 1 John 3. 16. Rom. 10. 3. Christ as he was God-Man and our Mediator what he did upon this account in the Flesh he did in the Spirit also Now in this place where Christ bewailed Jerusalem's state with tears either they flowed from true inward compassion or they did not if the first then Christ in the Flesh and in the Spirit willed one and the same thing and had no distinct Will for Jerusalem's Salvation as Man different from his Will as God but if the second then his tears were only feigned and his bewailing nothing but dissimulation which is a capital Sin to affirm And tho the Lord was resolved to bring Jerusalem to desolation by delivering them into the hands of their Enemies yet as you say and say truly it was an effect of their Sins the neglect of the Day of their Visitation mocking his Messengers and stoning them that were sent to her to have drawn her from the evil of her ways and for crucifying the Lord of Life thereby filling up the measure of her Iniquity So tho the Lord brought her to desolation yet Punishment is rather his refuge than his choice and his defence against Sin than the hurt of his Creatures and the Sinner with his own hands most cruelly pulleth down punishment upon his own head for the evil of Sin and the evil of Suffering are Twins or rather Sin gives birth and being to the other God never inflicted the least punishment on any merely as Men but as workers of Evil as continuing sinful and disobedient So that it was Jerusalem's actual Sins and her refusing to be healed that brought her to ruin and not any irresistible Decree of the Almighty for you may as well deny the Being of a God as entertain a belief that he takes pleasure in the death and destruction of his Creatures His Nature is perfect Goodness and he is a stranger to Cruelty and all the expressions of Love and Good-will in Christ to poor Sinners are such that they neither admit nor are consistent with fraud or falshood so that yet you have not told me where the Attribute of God merely takes place upon those that God is resolved against all means possible to be used to punish by his Decree as you use to say But before I leave this let me ask you one Question more which is this Ought not or do not all Men stand ingaged to love God Philet To love God yea who should they love if they do not love God Philad Ay but I ask you for what Reason Mar. There may be many Reasons given the receiving the good things of this Life may engage all Men to love God Philad Yea but you will not own that God gives the good things of this Life with any good intention to the greatest number but rather gives them to them to heighten their misery doth God intend any good to the Souls of such by what he gives Mar. No yet are they to be accountable for the abuse of them Philad But you hold that God did decree they should abuse them accordingly and for that end were they given to them that so the abuse of them might heighten their misery this is but like the Proverb Give a Man Roastmeat and beat him with the Spit Can any Man become grateful or be tied in the Bonds of Love and Gratitude to such a Man that should feast him for a while yet after condemn him to Death and Destruction Philet The Apostle saith 1 John 4. 19. We love him because he first loved us but this is meant of the Elect only Philad Why should you go about to confine the Lor'd Mercy which is altogether Infinite and as incomprehensible as his Divine Essence why should you thus contract the Divine Goodness whose Mercies are not only exalted above our Conceptions but also above and over all his Works Therefore do not presume to measure the Lord 's Mercys by your narrow conceit nor labour to make it run into a lesser Channel than the Lord intended But God's great Love to all Men in giving his Son to die for them is the ground and cause of their Love to God again True love must first spring from the knowledg of God's Love to them neither can I think that any Men in the World will ever heartily and cordially love God unless they believe that God Almighty had designs of Love to them yea so far loved them as to send his Son to die for them otherwise instead of loving and living to God it would tend to a most horrid and desperate alienation of the Hearts of poor Creatures from their dear and ever-blessed Creator For how is it possible that the poor Creature should devest himself of those Delights and Pleasures of this Life and intirely love and delight himself in God and his blessed Will if he knew or had strong grounds of fear that before he made him or without respect to his Sins or unworthy carriage in the least he so far hated him as to resolve against all Mediation whatsoever to cast him out of his sight and to doom him to suffer the Vengeance of Eternal Fire You may preach up God's Sovereignty pronounce Justice and Judgment as some have done till they have brought Despair and Hell into the Souls of many and beget more Fear than Love make God feared as a Tyrant but 't is the making known Christ's meek Condescension Long-suffering and the superexcellent Amiableness of free Love and tender Mercy that soonest and most effectually works in us Repentance of our Sins and inclines us to love him that first loved us Wither's Paraphrase upon the Lord's Prayer Who is able to perswade Men by Arguments or move them by Threatnings to love God whose love to them in particular is doubtful Do you think it can or ever will be a motive for Persons to love God to tell them That before all Worlds or before they were born or there were any possibility of offending him in any manner it was decreed that the greatest number of Adam's Off-spring should be eternally reprobated and damned And tho he had provided means whereby Man might have been saved and that the worth and value was so great that it was sufficient for the Redemption of thousands of Worlds yet then it was
is proper to perswade or invite them to it Mar. Well for all you think these words of mine are such hard sayings yet I do farther affirm that all Men that are not by true Faith grafted into Christ but remain in an unconverted state all their Mercies are cursed to them yea they are cursed in every thing in their Name in their Estate in their Food for if they receive Food they are Usurpers of that which is none of their own if they receive no Food they are self-Murderers yea their Prayers the Word and Sacraments are cursed to them Phil. The Psalmist saith Ps 145. 9. That the Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works Martha God is good to all during the day of our Patience and long-Sufferance and what Mercy he affords to them may be called tender Mercy considering their sinfulness who deserve every moment to be cast into Hell But how the tender Mercy of God can be said to be over those when whatsoever God doth for them in a providential way he doth all with an intent to harden them that so he might bring destruction with the more severity and terror in the end will Men or can they call Health Peace Liberty Food Raiment given with an intent to become a Snare unto them and to bring unavoidable damnation upon them the tender Mercies of God Doth the Lord cause the Sun to rise upon the bad as well as upon the good and send Rain upon the Unjust as well as upon the Just in wrath and with a curse What can infinite Goodness and Perfection be implacable to his Creatures God forbid Ah Martha What would have become of you and I long before this time if God had not sought the good of his Creatures Consider we are all called the Lord's Off-spring Acts 17. All his Children by Creation Mar. What by that What would you prove from thence Phil. What Why then I think that the Lord must needs have a very tender regard to all as they are his Creatures the workmanship of his hands and is not implacable to them in this World Why may not God deal with his Off-spring as we deal by ours Goodman's Parable of the Prodigal Son which of us that have Children tho' they should prove very undutiful to us and we could not love them with the love of delight as we do those that are very dutiful and are good and vertuous yet at the worst we cannot chuse but pity them and heap favours upon them Why thus doth the Lord to the Sons and Daughters of Men though his delight is with them that fear him yet those that are the worst he pities And how can you think otherwise when there is not one Soul but is dearer to him than the whole World Neither did he count the Blood of his own Son too great a price for their Redemption but I doubt you are one of those that hold that God did from all Eternity fore ordain the greatest part of Adam's Off spring to everlasting destruction Mar. What if it was the Pleasure of God to make a thousand Worlds and then destroy them all Is it meet for Man to say unto God Why hast thou made me thus or what dost thou For he might glorify his Justice in the Damnation of all for their Sins who shall question God about this Phil. I say that God is so far from destroying one whole World that he is not willing that so much as one Soul should perish 2 Pet. 3. 9. and indeed who can think that our good and gracious God whose Name and Nature is Love should provide means of Life and Nourishment for Man in his Mother's Womb when he could neither breath nor eat should after he is born not provide as sufficient Means to nourish his Soul and Body to eternal Life I may say in this case as the Apostle in another doth God take care for Oxen hath God such a tender regard for the Bodies of Men and hath he none for the Soul surely he is every way as desirous of the welfare of the Soul as the Body and hath declared by Oath that he takes no pleasure in the Destruction of any Ezek. 33. 11 12. Who then is he that dare charge the God of Love with so much Cruelty as to expose his own Children at least by Creation to be a prey to the Devil What saith our Saviour Luke 11. 11. which of you having Children if they ask Bread will you give them a Stone c. Can we that are evil have Compassion upon our Children and will God harden himself as an Ostrich against his Off-spring Job 39. 16. Doth God condemn Cruelty in others and can we think he will harbour it in himself No the Scripture of Truth doth every where abound in giving Testimony of the Love Goodness and Bountifulness of God to all his Creatures and to Mankind above all other Works of his Hands in this lower World in so much as our blessed Saviour recommends him in his Carriage towards the worst and most unworthy of Men as an absolute Pattern for us to imitate in doing Good and shewing Mercy even to our Enemies Matt. 5. 44 45. Be ye therefore perfect even as your heavenly Father is perfect that is be you true Imitators of the Lord Followers of God as dear Children in these works of Mercy and Kindness Now Martha pray you observe this if we should suppose that God hath irreversibly from Eternity doomed to everlasting Destruction and without any respect to their Sin those unjust ones upon whom he causeth the Sun to rise c. it must necessarily follow that while he did these good things to them he intended the greatest Evil that can be inflicted or imagined even the Vengeance of Eternal Fire which if so then must those that imitate him in such ways be the most accursed Hypocrites and Dissemblers under Heaven making shews of Love and Kindness while War and Blood are in their Hearts and so by this a Man may be most unjust unmerciful full of Dissimulation hating most Men without any Cause and yet be most like God O horrid and most unworthy a true Christian Believer Mar. What will you deny God to be omnipotent hath not he an absolute Soveraignty and Lordship over his Creatures with full Power to dispose of them as he pleaseth and you that contend with God about his Soveraignty unless you repent Phil. It cannot be denied but that God hath an absolute Soveraignty and Lordship over his Creatures that is a lawful Power to dispose of them as he pleaseth yet it is a horrible Indignity put upon him and a great Injury done to the Goodness Mercy and fatherly Compassion of our good and gracious God to affirm that he exerciseth this his Power upon the hardest Terms and the most grievous unto his Creatures that is or can be imagined and that which no ways is conducing to his own Honour and Glory nay
the manner of Men yet it is not necessary that all those things which are attributed to God should have something in his Nature correspondent to them according to that ancient Saying Similitudes are not wont to run on all-fours Metaphors are not to be strain'd to express things in themselves quite opposite nor make the parallel run till it grows lame but great care must be taken that no mean base or unworthy thing be attributed to the most high And therefore from the Potter's Power over his Clay to make thereof a Vessel of Honour or Dishonour as he pleaseth to infer positively from thence that God hath purposely made some to be Vessels of Wrath is an unjustifiable Inference from that Similitude Surely the Holy Ghost compares not our most wise Creator to a foolish Potter who because he might make what he would of his Clay did therefore make the greatest number of his Pots to be broken again to shew that he had as well a Power to break them as to make them which none but a mad Man would do but rather to a wise Potter that designs his Work for some good end and use Doubtless God so made all things that not one of his Creatures hath so much cause of dislike as to say why hast thou made me thus No Vessel of Wrath came so made out of his Hands So that if any be Vessels of Wrath the fault is not in him but in themselves by reason of their Infidelity and Contempt of the Lord and his long Sufferance I know this place is usually made use of as a Fortress for such as you are to flee to and is misunderstood to imply what you say but if you will but mind what the Apostle was upon and let this place be expounded by the Context and other places of holy Scripture so that the whole and every part of God's Word may agree in one Truth then we shall never take it in this sense of yours for then this dark and obscure part of Paul's Epistle which the Apostle Peter saith many wrest to their own Destruction 2 Pet. 3. 16. must be taken openly to oppose and contradict the whole Course and Tenour of God's Word Is there no way to understand the 9th of the Romans than by making those places which sound severely to clash against those that sound compassionately Is it not far the best way to interpret hard and doubtful Texts by those many Texts that are clear and easy than to interpret the many clear Texts by one that is dark and difficult or if one Scripture may have a double sense must we needs take it in the worst must I needs say that the Father of Mercy and God of Consolation which doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men did absolutely damn him before he had done either good or evil is it not the best so to understand it that his Mercy and Justice his Love and Power may imbrace and kiss each other Now the Scripture speaks in some places darkly and dubiously in other places it expresses the same thing more clearly and certainly the doubtful are to be expounded by the certain and dark places by those that are clear and all Exposition answerably to the Current of Scripture not contrary to it Now it doth seem as if the Apostle in these Words had an Eye to Jeremiah 18. 3 4 c. where he speaks of the Clay in the Potter's Hands not as it was in Creation but in Vocation being marr'd in the Hands of the Potter and so finding it would not be for that use he designed it for made thereof a Vessel as pleaseth him So God sometimes whilst he is at work to fashion a Soul for his own Work by the preaching of the Gospel by the sweet motion of his Spirit by Mercy and long Sufferance yet the Vessel is marr'd the Clav yields not nor is pliable to the Will of God and so finding it will not be a fit Vessel for Honour he makes a Vessel of Dishonour Read the 7 8 9 Verses and compare them with 2 Tim. 2. 20 21. so that it is plain God made of one Lump all Innocent and Upright Gen. 5. ult Eccles 7. ult at the first See what Mr. Loveday saith upon this in his Personal Reprobation Reprobated Page 243 God saith he like a Potter makes of low vile Man honourable Vessels Hath not the Potter any ordinary Potter power over the Clay to make it what Vessel he pleaseth and when a piece thereof runs coarse and is marr'd upon the Wheel hath he not power to make it a less honourable Vessel and hath not God the same and much more power over you that have imbas'd your selves by slighting and abusing all those Mercies he hath designed to bestow upon you and thereby make you honourable To be plain saith the Apostle why may not God for your Disobedience and Rebellion to his Son as zealous as you are for the Law of Moses of a glorious People and invested with all those extraordinary Privileges make you a base and contemptible People and besides your continuing still in Unbelief make your Condition far worse in the World to come Such a Paraphrase as this seems to bear a sweet Harmony with Jeremiah 18. also with the Scope of the whole Context and with the Apostle's conclusive Result Verse 32. that they did not attain to it because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the Works of the Law So that when Persons do Evil against God and will not obey his Voice but obey Unrighteousness and harden their Hearts against him then he will make them Vessels of Dishonour prepared for Destruction These are they that Jude speaks of Verse 4. that were of old ordained to this Condemnation not simply as they were Men but ungodly Men turning the Grace of God into Wantonness c. By what is or might farther be said we may see that those absolute Decrees of Mers inevitable Damnation is no part of God's revealed Will for if this 9th of the Romans faileth to prove what you bring it for as it is evident it doth then there is not the least shew in the Scripture for it Nay this Opinion of yours seems rather to be taken out of the Turkish Alcoran or Heathen Authors than the Bible for the Holy Scriptures are so far from containing or asserting any such Exercise in God over his Creatures which consists in a most severe and dreadful dooming them from Eternity to endless Misery that on the other hand they frequently exalt him as very gracious loving merciful and bountiful towards all and that there must be a great Breach on the Creatures part in point of Degeneration before the Lord gives him up to ruin Isa 27. 11. yea the Love and Pity of God to his Creature Man exceeds the Affections of a Father to his Son or of the tenderest Mother to her sucking Child Mat. 7. 11. Isa 49. 15. Martha I cannot
only himself but all his Posterity if he should have had any under Sentence of Death and Condemnation yet did the Lord who delights in Mercy before he pronounc'd the Sentence due to him for Sin graciously promise a Saviour Gen. 3. 15. by which he was put into a state of Recovery from this dreadful Fall And God by this gracious Promise took whole Adam into Grace and Favour And you can no more exclude any from Justification of Life which hath abounded towards all by Christ than you can exclude them from the Condemnation which hath abounded towards them by Adam Rom. 5. 16 17 18 19. Here the condemned Ones by Adam and the justified of Christ are computed by one and the same Number For as we hear of the Condemnation of all Men by the Offence of Adam so of no fewer than all Men justified by Christ and no more than many made Sinners by Adam or of any fewer than many made Righteous by Christ Mar. Let it be well observed that the Scope of the Apostle in this place is to shew that as Death and Condemnation came inevitably upon all the first Adam's Posterity by his Fall so shall the free Gift of Righteousness come infallibly upon all in whose room and stead Christ died as their Second Adam their Surety and Mediator the first Adam's All was all Mankind the second Adam's All was the Elect upon which Justification and Sanctification shall most certainly and infallibly be bestowed upon them Philad But why the All in the first Clause should be taken for all Mankind without excepting so much as one and All in the latter should exclude all Men a few only excepted I know not For unless Persons will take to themselves a lawless Liberty to exercise Dominion over the Expression of the Holy Ghost they cannot make them greater or lesser in one Clause than in the other for if Condemnation should come upon all Men by the offence of Adam and Righteousness only upon some few by the Obedience of Christ then where Sin abounded Grace should not super-abound as Verse 20. unless Grace hath a proportionable Reign unto Life so as to put all Men into a Capacity of Life and Salvation as Sin reigned over all Men without exception unto Death Philet The Apostle's Scope is to shew that as Death came in by one publick Person so Life and Salvation came in by another publick Person and that the Lord Jesus will infallibly justify and save his All for whom he undertook and died as their Head and Representative Philad But it seems you will not own that the Grace of Christ did profit Mankind as much as the Sin of Adam damnified it No you make Christ less than Adam and that Adam did more to the damning of the Souls and Bodies of all his Posterity than Christ did for the saving of them if so what will become of Paul's glorying over the Grace of God in Christ as much more abounding as in Verse 15. For if thro the offence of one many be dead much more the Grace of God and the Gift by Grace which is by one Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many But now if many more Millions of Men are dead thro the offence of Adam than are made alive by the Grace of God in Christ where 's the much more Philet All Men being fallen in Adam God beholding Mankind in the corrupt Mass and he being the Sovereign Lord of all might at his Pleasure and in his electing Love pardon one or a few of fallen Mankind and by an eternal Decree of Reprobation leave the greatest part of Mankind in that sad and depraved Condition without any Power to believe or a Christ to believe in and this he might do because he hath an absolute and uncontroulable Power and Dominion over his Creatures Philad Now you run upon a Fundamental Mistake about personal and absolute Election and Reprobation You make Adam's Sin the Foundation of building your fearful Opinion upon that Man suffers Eternal Damnation for Adam's Sin This is a most sad Doctrine that God should lay men under a necessity of being born under the Guilt of that Sin which was out of their Power to help or withstand for men can no more help Adam's Sin than they could help being born and yet for that cast away the greatest part of Mankind forever Shall one Man sin and will the Lord be wrath with all Num. 16. 22. 'T is true when Man by disobedience became Bankrupt of the Divine Bounty and had run himself so far in Debt both to the Law and Justice beyond any possibility to pay the Debt the Lord in Justice might have left him in the Fall and made him Partaker of his fierce Wrath Yet was the Lord pleased to break forth in high and much Mercy and in the tenderness of his Love deeply compassionating Man's Misery entered into a Covenant of Peace freely giving his only Son to satisfy the whole Debt and set us free for which we are obliged to be unfeignedly thankful to our dear Lord and truly to love him that first loved us and hath promised that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have Everlasting Life God hath now tied himself by promise and hath firmly indented with us in the Covenant of Grace and Mercy through Christ that if we believe and obey the Lord we shall undoubtedly reap the blessed Fruits of the Promise in Eternal Life Therefore I beseech you do not entertain such dreadful Apprehensions of an Infinite Gracious God that he should send Millions of Men to endless torments for Adam's single Transgression Surely if it was so the Holy Ghost who so effectually in the Scriptures of Truth vindicates the Righteousness and Equity of God's Proceedings in the Condemnation of wicked and ungodly Men would have insisted more or less upon it we should find something of it in the Word of God either from Christ or some of his Servants but I cannot find the least hint of it in the whole Scripture that ever the Lord decreed to assign Men their Portions with Devils for that Sin it being taken away as to the condemning Guilt of it by the Grace of God in Christ Where doth the Scripture say that for Adam's Sin in eating the forbidden Fruit God hateth the greatest part of his Posterity yea so hates them as to reprobate them to the second Death but plainly tells us the Child shall not suffer for the Father's Sins Ezek. 18. Philet But doth not the Lord say Exod. 20. 5. That he will visit the Sins of the Father upon the Children c. Philad Yea but 't is to those that hate him mind the words If Children come to be haters of God as their Fathers were treading in the same steps of sin and disobedience with their wicked Parents they thereby becoming partakers of their sins shall share with them in their punishment But this doth not shew that God will condemn any for that offence which
who seek Salvation by the free Grace of God through Faith in Christ shall have it Rom. 9. 33 c. So that this Text proves not what you bring it for neither can you fairly understand it of such a Love or Hatred as to prove either Persons or Parties are saved or damned much less doth it prove that God hates any personally considered as they are Sinners in Adam c. Very well saith Dr. Homes p. 8. God cast off none till they cast off him 2 Chron. 36. 16. Prov. 29. 1. And in the New Testament only for the Sin of refusing Christ all along is Damnation pronounced God doth not actually cast them off beyond all Remedy till they actually cast off him and so cast them off not for original Sin but actual Sins and that not too for every actual Sin but for those that cast off the Remedy namely the Word of Christ and Christ the Word Philet That God choseth some and leaveth others in the Fall I prove from the very Word Elect or Election which is a separation or singling out some in a way of Mercy or Choice from a Number and whether these Scriptures do not prove this Election to be personal without any respect unto Faith 2 Tim. 2. 19. Phil. 4. 3. John 10. 3. Act. 19. 15. Rom. 11. 5 7. Rev. 7. 4. Rom. 9. 11. Mark 13. 20. Eph. 1. 4. 1 Pet. 1. 20. Tit. 2. 14 c. Philad But you know that the Word Election doth not always suppose Rejection but preferring one thing above another and it is frequent in Scripture to call both things and Persons of great Value of special Worth and Excellency in their kind Elect or Chosen 1 Sam. 26. 2. Isa 22. 7. In this sense the Messiah was termed by the Jews the Elect or Chosen of God Luke 23. 35. and called a Corner-Stone elect and precious 1 Pet. 2. 4. and Paul an elect or chosen Vessel And Dr. Hammond tells us The Greek Words used in Rev. 17. 14. viz. Chosen and Faithful are joined together as words of the same import Mod. I hope Philadelphus you will not dare to limit the Lord suppose God hath Elected some to Life and Salvation from Eternity or from the Fall Is not God's Mercy his own May he not do with it as he pleaseth What if God will give to one that comes into the Vineyard at the eleventh hour nay give to one gratis for doing nothing as much as he will to me for working according to my Covenant what wrong doth he do to me Why should my Eye be evil because God is bountiful or I repine that another obtains Mercy Philad I am none of those that pretend to keep the Keys of God's Secrets I dare not say God never did nor ever will chuse any personally considered But can it justly be concluded from God's predestianting some personally consider'd to Eternal Life that therefore all the rest were decreed absolutely to Condemnation without any respect to their Disobedience any more than when a King without any Condition premised pardons some that are guilty of the same Offence with others that he thereby implys that all the rest to whom he offers Pardon upon such conditions as they were able to perform should be Executed without Mercy Neither do I see any grounds from these Scriptures that we must needs understand Persons under a personal consideration without respect to Faith in Christ or any other Qualification to be the object of Electing Love and as such shall infallibly enjoy Eternal Salvation I know no Scripture that saith so nor can any Man be said to be chosen before the Foundation of the World or from the Fall any otherwise than in the Decree of God which is brought forth in time when they come actually to believe in Christ for God calleth things that are not as if they were Rom. 4. 7. and it is a usual thing in Scripture to speak of things to be done in time as if already done as Rom. 8. 30. where the Apostle speaks as if they were already glorified yet not actually glorified nor any otherwise than in the Purpose or Decree of God and so 2 Tim. 1. 19. Tit. 3. 5. they are said to be saved who were not at that time actually saved so in Ephes 1. 4. they are said to be chosen in him before the Foundation of the World though not chosen till they came to believe in Christ for as Christ was called a Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World Rev. 13. 8. though not slain till he took Flesh upon him which was some thousands of Years after even so Persons are said to be Elected from the Foundation of the World though not chosen till they be in Christ and when Persons have once obtained a Being in Christ by Faith they may truly be said to be Chosen by virtue of that Decree of Election which was in God before the Foundation of the World whereby he decreed to chuse all those to Salvation who should repent of their Sins believe in his Son and be obedient to his Will and when they come into this State God may be said to chuse them before the Foundation of the World by virtue of the Decree that was in him So that whatsoever Elective Love God hath or might have for any of the degenerate Sons of Adam more than for others Yet this is a thing that wholly lies hid in the secret Counsel of God and wholly unknown to us but this the Scripture reveals for a truth That whomsoever God predestinates them he calls before they are either justified or glorified Rom. 8. 30. and so 2 Thess 2. 13. through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth c. Now if the Saints are chosen to Salvation through c. and were called to it by the Gospel then they were not chosen actually before they had believed the Truth or before they heard the Gospel And to make this more plain you know Paul was a chosen Vessel or a most choice Instrument a Vessel for the Lord's use Acts 9. 15. yet he tells us that he was before a Blasphemer and a Persecutor and Injurious 1 Tim. 1. 13. and writing to his Son Titus ch 3. 3. speaking of himself saith We our selves were sometimes foolish disobedient deceiving serving divers Lusts and Pleasures living in Malice and Envy bateful and hating one another Now shall we say that Paul during his unbelief and impenitence was in a justified State an adopted Child of God Surely no. Philet Well how and when came Paul to be an adopted Child of God Philad How why first God humbles him brings him to the foot of Christ calls him by his Grace Gal. 1. 15. to which Call he was obedient Acts 26. 19. and was regenerated and born again by the Washing of Regeneration and Renewing of the Holy Ghost by which he was led to believe and obey the Gospel Acts 24. 14 15 16. and to live intirely to him
and not as Believers or as their being in Christ by Faith then for God to love a Person to Day and hate him to Morrow would evidently shew a change in his Affection according to the change made in the Creature And I must needs tell you I like this plain dealing the best you are herein truer to your Principles than many of your Brethren that hold this Point of personal Election But for my part I believe that God loveth and accepts more of Actions that are good than of mere Persons and contrary to what you say that such and such Actions do therefore please him because the Person pleaseth him but rather because their Actions please him therefore their Persons please him tho God hates all the Workers of Iniquity Psal 5. 5. yet said he to Cain Gen. 4. 7. If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted and Heb. 11. 5 6. Before his Transgression he had this Testimony that he pleased God but without Faith he could not Read John 14. 23. and 15. 14. and 16. 27. These are those that he will love yet may those that were once beloved of God by reason of Sin come to be the object of his hatred Isa 63. 9 10. But they rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit therefore he was turned to be their Enemy and fought against them Now you that say that where once God loves he must never cease to love Pray you what think you of the Angels that fell Do you think God did not love them while they stood in that pure and holy State in which they were created and if he did do you think that he loves them now in their Apostacy So God is said to love Jacob and Israel yet at another time he is said to hate Israel Jer. 12. 7 8. Amos 6. 8. yet is this taken off again Isa 60. 15. whereas they were hated God loved them again So that God may love at one time and hate at another without the least change in him in respect of Love or Hatred because no Person of Man is supposed to be the Object of elective Love but only as Righteous nor any Person the Object of Reprobation but only as Wicked so that the Love of God being set upon such kind of Persons as are true Believers those who have Christ formed in them whose Souls are regenerated and formed into the Image of Jesus and Partakers of the heavenly and divine Nature having received that heavenly and divine Anointing by virtue of which they become Christians 1 Cor. 6. 17. John 15. being wrought into a Conformity to Jesus this is that State in which the true Election stands Christ being the elected Root and Believers the elected Branches These are those whom God doth justify and will glorify these are those whom the Lord hath set apart for himself Psal 4. 3. These are those whom the Lord hath chosen from the rest of the World to be his own peculiar Favourites upon whom he intends to bestow an heavenly Inheritance and as Persons decline from Christ living in a State of Unbelief and Impenitency being Strangers to the Life of God disobedient and to every good Work reprobate they remaining such are in that state in which Reprobation stands not being brought over to Christ in whom the Father is well pleased So that I conceive that Unchangeableness which the Scripture asserts of God is to be considered with respect to his Essence Attributes and Decrees and not in his constant loving the same Persons how wicked soever they prove For suppose God should dearly love a Person while he is faithful to him and in case this Person should apostatize and die in a state of Impenitency and he should destroy him with eternal Death this doth not shew the least Alteration in any of the Lord's Attributes either of Love Goodness Mercy Justice c. And suppose a Man passeth from a State of Sin wherein he lived to the Displeasure of the Lord to a State of Faith and Holiness and in this Condition comes to injoy the Love and Favour of God yet his Love and Hatred cannot be said to be changed tho the Persons of Men change never so often from Good to Evil or from Evil to Good This shews indeed a change in Man but no change at all in the Lord he still loves and hates but what he loved and hated before Pray consider Ezek. 18. at what Instant I spake c. if it doth Evil I will repent Here you see God is said to repent so he is said to repent that he made Man upon the Earth Gen. 6. 6. he is said to repent that he made Saul King 1 Sam. 15. 11. And yet the Scriptures cannot be broken which testify that with God is no Repentance or shadow of change 1 Sam. 15. 29. Num. 23. 19. James 1. 17. Mal. 3. 6. Psal 102. 25. yet here is no real Contradiction And as I said before in respect of his Essence Attributes and Decrees God cannot repent yet after the manner of Men he is said to repent in respect of his Works for as Men when they repent alter their Works so when God alters his Work he is said to repent as in Gen. 6. 6. I will saith God destroy Man from the Earth for it repents me c. God made Man to dwell upon the Face of the Earth but now coming to destroy Man from off the Earth seems to repent and so concerning Saul I repent that I have made Saul King that is I have determined to depose him and to prefer another And so concerning Ely c. Delawn Sacr. p. 50. So that no such Conclusion can reasonably be drawn from God's once loving he must for ever love how wicked soever the Person proves afterwards or else be mutable for I do not find in Scripture that God hateth any of the Works of his Hands as they are his Creatures nor any thing but Sin and Sinners for the cause of Sin and there is the same Consideration or the like Reason of his Election being placed upon Faith and obedient Persons or Persons really brought over to Christ Philet The Elect are justified in the Eternal purpose of God and tho the Elect do sin yet the Lord sees it not so as to condemn them for it neither can it do them any hurt or make them less lovely in the sight of God Philad Hold one word before you go any farther you seem to say God was never an Enemy to the Elect Do you not by this make the Fall of Adam in whom the Elect were included a mere Fiction and the whole Story of the Gospel concerning Christ's Suffering a Fable and the Passion of Christ if you grant he suffered for the Elect a mere Vanity more than needs to die to reconcile and bring those into Friendship with God which were never out of his Love nor with whom he was never offended Philet I say all the Sins of the Elect both past present and
to come are taken away by Christ Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the Charge of God's Elect c. and so Rom. 4. 23. Isa 35. 8. The Lord hath laid upon him the Iniquity of us all and 1 Pet. 2. 24. himself bore our Sins on his Body c. and what I said I will say that tho the Elect may sin as well as others yet their God in Christ will never un-son them nor yet touching their Justification and eternal Salvation will he love them ever a whit the less yea tho they commit never so many and great Sins For this is a certain Truth that as no Good in them or done by them did move him to elect and justify them and to give them eternal Life so no Evil in them or done by them can move him to take that away when once given Philad This is like that which is in the Mouth of some Be in Christ and sin if thou canst what pity is it that Men pretending to Wisdom and Sobriety and Professors of Godliness should fall into such Raptures as are next to Madness What a bundle of Errors are here wrapt up together and that under Scripture-guize but surely you do not read the Scripture in that Spirit in which it was wrote or else you might see notwithstanding the Apostle's triumphing that till Persons repent of their Sins and turn to God they stand charged with many things as I have told you from Eph. 2. and from Paul who was before his Conversion a Persecutor a Blasphemer and confess'd himself the chief of Sinners yea before the Apostle comes to this Triumphing he was long exercised with Frights Terrors within and Frightnings without and tells the Corinthians 1 Cor. 2. 3. that his Preaching among them was in great fear and trembling so that we must Fight before we Triumph and Mourn before the Lord Comfort us And how clearly doth 1 Pet. 2. 24. shew that the proper intention of Redemption is Dominion eternal Redemption is an eternal Obligation to Service Ye are bought with a price ye are not your own your Bodies and Spirits are the Lord's 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Rom. 14. 9. You may see that one end of Christ's being a Redeemer was that he might be a Sovereign Lord over his Purchase yea this is one great end of the Lord 's entering into Covenant with his People promising to do great things for them Ezek. 11. 19 20. I say the end of all is that they might serve him Hockins on God's Decree p. 93. Can we entertain so ignoble a belief that the eternal Son of God should suffer for any less end than to advance our Human Nature to the greatest height of Piety and Purity of Life and to raise our Souls to the most refined and sublimate goodness What did Christ take our Nature upon him and become Surety for us and pay such an infinite price for us that we might spend more freely and daringly on the Stock of our Surety's Satiffaction Ah! Who can with-hold their Eyes from Tears to think that any should make use of Mercy to damn them For many had not been guilty of so many Sins nor persisted in them without Repentance had it not been for their false hope in Christ not considering Christ came to redeem from all Iniquity as well as from all Wrath. Philet But Christ dying for the Elect hath thereby fulfilled all Righteousness satisfied Divine Justice and purchased Heaven for them Philad And what then Philet Why then there 's no doubt but they shall be saved for in the very moment of Election they were pardoned of all Sins past present and to come Philad What as if now nothing could endanger their Souls they have enough for Heaven Pray what should hinder them from bidding all Sin welcom Why may they not kill whore c. and commit all Abomination and if impleaded for it bring in this as an Evidence that they were in the very moment of Election pardoned of all Sins past present and to come they have a Gracious God that will forgive them and a Surety who hath paid for all Philet I perceive what you are driving at You hold that Faith and Obedience in us to be the cause of God's Electing or Chusing us to Life and Salvation Doth not the Scripture prove that Election is not according to foreseen Faith not because Men do or will believe but because they should believe Rom. 9. 11. 1 Pet. 1. 2 3 4. 2 Tim. 1. 9. Tit. 1. 1. Now if Faith and Obedience be the cause of God's loving us then here is Merit this eclipses the Glory of God's free Love and renders Salvation of Debt and not of Grace Mar. This is down-right Popery nay I affirm that Faith and Repentance are no more a means to go to Heaven by than prophane Cursing and Swearing Philad That Faith in Christ and Obedience to the Lord is a cause without which God chuseth none to Life and Salvation is a Truth unless you can prove that God hath designed his Son to die to save such as will neither repent of their Sins believe nor obey him but live and die in open Rebellion against God and do despight to the Spirit of Grace and trample under foot the Blood of the Son of God c. but that it is the cause for which God chuseth any I disown as well as you For the Love of God the Father to the Sons of Men as they were Sinners and Enemies to him was the essential cause of our Salvation John 3. 16. Rom. 5. 6 8 10. 1 Pet. 3. 18. and Jesus Christ the meritorious and procuring cause of Man's Salvation and should we admit of any thing else but Christ to be the matter of our Justification or the meritorious Cause of Eternal Life this would be injurious to the Perfection of Christ's Righteousness and overthrow the freeness of Divine Grace and Love But you and all Men ought rightly to divide and distinguish between the Cause and Condition of our Salvation that Christ may be owned as the Cause and Author of it and Faith and Obedience as the way and means to attain to it for as God Almighty hath prepared a Heaven for Men so he hath appointed the way and means to fit and prepare them for it as Christ is the Way so if I should say that Faith and Obedience is a way to come to enjoy it I might say it was advancing Nature above Grace or setting up our own Righteousness in the room of Christ's Righteousness and so robbing him of his Honour or asserting Merits surely Eternal Happiness hereafter hath some dependance upon Holiness here Mod. I like this well and do believe that God that hath appointed the end hath also appointed the means as in the Case of Paul Acts 27. 22. though God had promised to save Paul and all that were in the Ship yet they were to use the means otherwise they could not be safe I would have
none think that God will do all our Works for us while we sit still and do nothing For as God must blow upon the Spark of Grace by his Spirit so we should be storing up Holy Endeavours God will not bring his People to Heaven sleeping but praying in the use of Means and Holy Ordinances yet may Means and Duties be greatly abused if we be not careful Philad Yea they are abused when we do not look through them all to Jesus or when we make them as Mediators set them in the room of Christ or when Christ is not eyed sought to admired and trusted in Alas What can poor Sinners do without a Jesus There is no Salvation in any other the highest measure of Believing Doing or Suffering cannot turn away God's Wrath for the least Sin All our Prayers Tears Alms Duties do not pacifie God no we must with Holy Paul count all as nothing to win Christ so that had not Christ perfectly fulfilled the Law and have been made a Curse for us Gal. 3. 13. the exactest Christian could have no grounded hopes of Heaven there is no escaping the Curse but by Christ so that all that do or have escap'd the Curse have cause to say that not their own Graces nor their own Works but Christ hath delivered them from Wrath to come 'T is Christ's precious undertaking that gives us a right to Heaven but yet our walking in the Holy Commands of God fits us for it For without holiness none shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. Rev. 21. 27. Philet If Christ be our Righteousness and Sanctification as 1 Cor. 1. what need we have any Righteousness of our own Nay there is no Qualification or Condition in the New Covenant required on our part 't is all free 't was free Love in God to send his Son to die for his People and free Love in Christ to lay down his Life for the Elect neither is it the Elect but Christ that stands engaged to God by the New Covenant free Grace wholly excludes Self or any thing we can do as a Cause procuring or as a Condition qualifying us for the receiving of it Here 's a comfortable difference between the New Covenant and the Old the Old was such that in case Man did fail to perform his Condition the Covenant was broke and God was free from giving Life but in the New Covenant Man is tied to no Condition that he must perform which if he doth not it will make the Covenant void to him and those that teach otherwise detract and lessen the free Grace of God and attribute something to the Creature Philad Tho' the Love Grace and Mercy of God in our Redemption be wholly free no one sought out to him for a Saviour but he alone was moved by his own Love to a poor lost Creature and first sought after him when he was fallen God was not bound to bring forth a Saviour for any he was not laid under any necessity to cast an Eye of Pity upon Man it was an Act of free Grace to save Sinners by the Obedience and Suffering of Jesus Yet is nothing to be accounted free Grace without the Lord for the sake of Christ pardon the Sins of the most Impure and Impenitent and bring them to Heaven whether they will or no Was not God at liberty to pardon Sinners in what way and upon what terms he pleased such as he in his Wisdom should judg most meet and most consistent with his Justice Mercy Truth and Holiness God hath no where promised to save Men by Jesus Christ that I know of but by Repentance Faith and Obedience as the means as you may see John 3. 16 36. Mark 16. 16. Luke 13. 3 5. Mat. 4. 17. Acts 3. 19. Rev. 22. 14. Rom. 2. 7 8 9 10. and in Heb. 5. 9. Christ is there said to be the Author of Eternal Salvation To whom To those that continue in their Rebellion and Impenitency No but to such as obey him 't is true Christ came into the World that the Sentence of Eternal Death might not be executed upon us yet 't is ungrateful wickedness and no better than to tread under foot the infinite price of Forgiveness to think because his Blood hath purchased a Pardon therefore we are freed from our Duty to him And whereas you say that in the New Covenant Man is tied to no Condition that he must perform c. and that not Man but Christ stands engaged to God c. methinks 't is a very sine way to acquit your self of all Sins and consequently of all punishment for Sin but if Christ stands ingaged to repent believe and obey the Gospel how comes it to pass that Persons are exhorted to them and charged with Sin upon the omission of them Surely then all the Sins of the Elect for they sin as well as others must be charged upon Christ and he stands guilty of all the breaches of the New Covenant how an you endure to speak this without abhorrence But is there no Condition no Qualification required on our parts in order to come to partake of the Great and Gracious Promises Then what 's the meaning of all these Scriptures John 15. 10. Prov. 4. 5. Rom. 8. 13. Mic. 7. 21. prov 28. 13. Rom. 2 8 9. and what are all those Blessed and most Gracious Promises in Mat. 5 Do they not include Conditions something to be done on our parts if we would find acceptance with the Lord Pray read Luke 13. 3. John 6. 53. Mat. 18. 3. John 3. 5. Mat. 5. 20. John 15. 20. Nay view those many Expressions which you find in the Word of God in the Commands Exhortations Instructions Threatnings and Promises and then see whether we come to injoy the great Blessings of the Gospel without conditions Mar. Doth not the Scripture say Isa 64. 6. That all our Righteousnesses are as filthy Rags yea as a menstruous Cloth Philad I am satisfied that this Scripture is greatly abused for want of a right understanding and rightly distinguishing between that Righteousness which doth justisie us at the Bar of God's Justice and that Righteousness which is God's Requirement and so the Creatures Duty now taken in one Sense they are no better than filthy Rags and in the other they are now if we expect to merit Heaven and obtain Eternal Salvation for well doing this is to overthrow the blessed undertaking of Jesus Christ and lessen the free Grace of God as if Persons could go to Heaven without being beholden to Jesus And here it is that they are no better in the sight of God having no worth or value but are rejected of the Lord as filthy Rags but now as they are the Holy Commands and Appointments of the Lord and the Creature 's Duty who dare say that they are in the sight of God as filthy Rags or as stinking Carrion What hath God required his Creatures to perform such and such Duties and hath promised
Lombardus as quoted by Morton Page 51 when a Man speaks any thing contrary to his mind And saith Aquinas this is properly to lie when a Man signifies in outward words another thing than that which he thinketh in his mind And whereas you charged Universal Redemption as savouring of Popery pray what greater piece of Popery than their mental Reservation and wicked Equivocation saying one thing and meaning another Have there not been whole Volumes writ to detect it But if professing one thing while the contrary is intended be Holy in God why not in them or if some things in God may be Holy which are abominable in Man by what Rule must we distinguish between Holy things in God which are Holy also when found in Men and such other Holy things in God which when found in Men are abominable Is it not of dreadful consequence to impute that to God which common and approved Reason judges to be unrighteous in Men His Works are so just his Word so pure and so merciful is he in his Ways that there is no appearance to the contrary and in performing his Covenant and Promises he is most highly faithful and constant and is in no wise a Dissembler that under such most affectionate Expressions of Love and Kindness to Man should conceal settled Purposes and Intentions of doing them the greatest Mischief Surely in God's Revealed Will cannot possibly lurk any mental Reservation or Insincerity What a dishonour and a crime of a high Nature would it be if Persons should deal thus with an earthly King as you do with the King of Heaven Suppose a King should set forth a Proclamation of a General Pardon to all his Subjects that had offended him without excepting High Treason or any other Offence whatsoever yet if they will but repent submit to his Mercy sue forth their Pardon they shall have it And now after all this is proclaimed throughout the Nation others should assume to proclaim that which is quite contrary that tho it was the King's Pleasure to offer such a General Pardon yet it was the King's Secret Will yea before the Proclamation came forth that the greatest number should never reap any benefit by it Can any Man indued with reason and understanding any ways think that such Officers proclaimed that which made for the King's Honour Or if it was a Truth would not the Soul of a Person abominate such pretending to Kindness and Mercy And now whereas the King of Kings the God of Heaven hath vouchsafed an Act of Grace and in tender compassion and pure love to all hath sent forth a General Pardon tendering his Grace to all telling us that for his Son's sake he will freely and fully pardon all our Sins whatsoever if we will but accept of it and if we sue forth our Pardon we shall have it freely and the God of Heaven to make this known to the World has sent forth his Messengers to proclaim these glad-tidings to all without excepting one Glory to God high on Earth Peace Good-will towards all which was proclaimed by a Heavenly Herald And how hath the Lord both in the Old and New Testament proclaimed and professed himself a God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth yea how earnestly doth he allure Persons to repentance promising them pardon of Sins with all the Blessings of the World to come and seriously and solemnly protests and swears that he desires not their Death he would not have one Soul of them perish But now if after all this others should come and say that tho it be the Revealed Will and Pleasure of God that such a General Pardon should be divulged to the World yet it was the Secret Will of God yea before this Proclamation came forth it was decreed that he would cast out of his favour and devote to Eternal Burning millions of his most excellent Creatures Men Women and Children that never offended him any otherwise than Children may offend before they are born Do you think such words any ways advance the Glory Holiness and Excellency of God No thus under pertence of glorifying of him you most dishonour him as if God did not really intend that Grace and Good to Man which in his Word he tenders to them and so Persons must be damned because God did not really and in good earnest call them which is a thing more fit to be applied to Cheaters and Juglers than to the righteous pure single and secret Will of God Is it not pity you should impute that to the Lord which is proper to none but the worst of his Creatures surely all God's Decrees are perfectly just and whatsoever he wills is perfectly good neither can he will any thing but what in it self is Righteous Just and Equal and to say of things unequal in themselves yet done by God that they are just is a great dishonour to him Wither's Paraphrase on the Lord's Prayer How dare you speak of such a Will to be in God which he hath no where revealed in his Word His Secret Will how come you to know it and if it be revealed how is it Secret Philet God by his Revealed Will sheweth that he approveth of the Salvation of such Persons that perish as Good and sheweth what Persons ought to do and what would be well-pleasing to God was it found in them yet he doth not will it with his Effectual Will for if he did he would give forth strength and such a power that they should not but believe Philad These are but the perplexing Subtilties of the Schools and but Briers and Thorns to intangle Men in endless disputations What doth God approve of the Salvation of Persons as good by his Revealed Will and hath he by his Secret Will positively determined and decreed from Eternity their destruction which is quite contrary to what he approves takes pleasure and delight in what woful work is here As to his Effectual Will if you mean by it his absolute irresistable Power in converting of Sinners beyond all possibility of perishing or the irresistable efficacy and predetermining Power of Grace this is such a Will as you cannot prove to be in God Philet No surely whatsoever the great and glorious God hath purposed and intended he will do shall certainly be effected by his Glorious Power 'T is a dishonour to the most High God as if he was uncertain to effect what he purposeth and intends to do for seeing God's Power is infinite and he being no less than the Omnipotent God he cannot fail or fall short to effect whatsoever he wills and pleaseth to do in the conversion of any he pleaseth to convert or in any other thing that is his Will and Pleasure to effect and do his Counsel shall stand and he will do all his Pleasure Philad 'T is true God is Omnipotent and can do whatsoever he pleaseth tho all Creatures opposed him yet God can many times do more than indeed
and Nations but Heaven and Earth and all shall fall rather than God will not observe Rectitude and Justice in giving to every one his due yea so just is God that he would not spare his best beloved Son yea and God is glorified by Justice as well as by Mercy and should there be any jarring and disagreeing in the Divine Being all would run into confusion yea Heaven and Earth would be a Chaos but certainly there is nothing more lovely than when Justice and Mercy do imbrace and kiss each other God hath promised in Judgment to remember Mercy and that he doth not willingly afflict and grieve the Children of Men the Divine Goodness is such that he always pities where he must punish Lam. 3. 33. and is very unwilling to strike but from mere necessity he seldom or never makes any Patterns of his Wrath but such as are despisers of his Mercy and forgetters of his Favours yea and after a long time of forbearance Isa 65. 2. So tho God hath a respect to Justice as well as Mercy and one is as much beloved as the other yet in the expressions of his Love to the Sons of Men 't is said to be above all his Works But where hath Mercy any place upon those that are made the butts of God's Displeasure yea view but the Scriptures wherein the Mercy and Goodness of God are legible to all and you will find that his love to sinful Man is truly inconsistent with the Nature of those absolute Decrees you speak of see Hos 11. 8. How shall I give thee up O Ephraim c. Here the Lord speaks as if to punish a sinful and disobedient People went to his very heart yea he is so unwilling to inflict Punishment that his very Bowels are moved as is intimated by turning within him Consider the case of Sodom when upon Abraham's earnest expostulation with the Almighty the Divine Bounty rose so high that had there been in those Five great Cities but Ten righteous the effectual Prayers of a righteous Man carry such a kind of Omnipotency a long with them that they tie as 't were God's hands from Judgments and open them to Mercy Let me alone said God to Moses nay it may be conjectured that not only Ten but Five or less might have prevailed for the saving those Citys Consider the Case of Nineveh Jona 1. likewise Mat. 23. 37. O Jerusalem c. Certainly this Scripture doth highly speak forth God and Christ's great Love to Mankind Sorrow mixt with Love and Pity and you shall find few or none commenting upon this text but say Christ shewed abundance of Love to these poor Jerusalemites Mr. Keach in his Scripture Tropes having shewed the compassion of Christ to Sinners under the similitude of a Hen saith that Jesus Christ was moved with the greatest compassion imaginable to wards the poor Jews and Jerusalemites whom he was first sent to and came to-seek and save this is signified by that wonderful passion that seized upon his Spirit c. And having shewed with what a mournful Voice the Hen calls her Chickens to her when there is danger saith so Christ calls to poor helpless and impenitent Sinners very often with a mournful Voice and tears in his eyes Luke 19. 42. And from thence doth infer it to be no better than presumption for any to dare to charge their eternal ruin upon God And a little after Who will pity Sinners if they perish at last and be damned when all is from their own vile stubborness And in his Youth's Guide he says That God's commiserating the sad estate of perishing Sinners argues there was once Mercy extended to them which could not be if Christ died not for all And in God's Love to mankind page 132. St. Austin saith Our Lord did compare himself to a Hen rather than to any other creature because of her singular expression of Love to them when out of sight Mar. But here 's a distinction which you either do not understand or have not considered as touching our Lord Jesus for he hath a Will distinct from his Will as God Now as Jesus Christ was Man he wept and as he was Man he willed Jerusalem Salvation but as he was God he wills it not for it was his determinate Will that Jerusalem should be destroyed as an effect of their Sins therefore tho Christ did weep for Jerusalem nay had he prayed for them God's unchangeable Will must take place Tho Moses and Samuel stood before me c. Jer. 15. 1. Philad I grant tho as I said before that faithful Prayer greatly prevails with God yet in some cases the most importunate Prayer of the most upright will not become effectual where Inquity is grown up to that height of malignity and desperate sinfulness that should not God punish it he would deny himself and cease to be God as he saith in Ezek 14. 14. that tho these three Men Noah Daniel and Job stand before me and would intercede their intercession for others will become fruitless where Justice calls for a cutting off but your distinction about a twofold Will in Christ I look upon to be but barely notional and nothing but to gratify Peoples pregnant fancies to say no worse and I doubt such sancies may prove of dangerous consequence for by this Christ in the Flesh had one End in his weeping and endeavouring to gather Jerusalem and in his Spirit another Christ as he was Man would have saved Jerusalem but as he was God he wills their destruction Christ as he was Man was filled with bowels of pity to their Souls and Bodys and would have gathered them under the Wings of his Grace and would have blessed them by turning them every one from their Iniquities Acts 3. ult but as he was God he had no more love for them than for Wolves and Tygers Christ as he was Man wept for the Bodys of those that should be destroyed by the Romans but as he was God he had decreed the Romans should destroy their Bodys and the Devil should have their Souls to Hell Christ in the Flesh is good and gracious seeking the Salvation of all but as God he hath consigned millions of Men Women and Children to perpetual Torments for Adam's single transgression What is Christ divided is not Christ in the Flesh and in the Spirit the same yesterday to day and for ever Was not the Word made Flesh and was it not united to the Divine Nature and anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure and did not he satisfy and bear our Sins as he was Man in our Nature did not he die as Man and rise in our Nature and hath he not carried our Nature into Heaven And from this full Christ in Flesh and Spirit God-man we receive Grace for Grace Leave off such things and draw not People into a Labyrinth of Errors by such trifling Distinctions lest you draw some to account the Blood of the Covenant wherewith they
Blood for those which when he had done all should have no benefit by it because not elected For the benefit provided in Redemption extendeth to none with respect to Eternal Life but such as are elected otherwise these things would follow 1. That he must love those in Redemption that he never loved in Election 2. That Christ died for all alike which contradicts these Scriptures Rom. 8. 33. John 11. 52. Ephes 5. 23 25. Tit. 2. 14. John 10. 15. Rev. 14. 14. in which Scriptures who can deny but there are expressions of singular respect and love for all are not Christ's Elect Children peculiar People given Ones redeemed from amongst Men. Moderatus I believe Election is absolute of particular Persons not the chusing of Believers only to be saved as Philadelphus speaks but the chusing Persons to believe and for those that are these peculiar Ones Christ died for them in a more peculiar manner and to such he will give Faith and Repentance to carry them safe through all that so they shall never perish yet Christ died for all and loved all Men in a sense being the Saviour of all Men 1 Tim. 4. 10. Yet did not Christ die for all alike some he died for with an intent to adopt for Sons others he died for to purchase Pardon and Salvation upon condition of their Repentance believing and obeying the Lord. Philet But have all Men a power to perform these Conditions Moderat No 't is not from the power of our own Free-will Philet It seems then Christ dying as well for those that shall perish as for those that shall be saved I see you are for the middle way you hold absolute Election of some with universal Redemption of all likewise the purchasing a power to believe only for some and the tenders of Salvation to all upon condition they believe repent and obey the Lord without a power to believe so that many thousands shall nay must perish notwithstanding Christ died for them Will you say that Christ died with an intent to save all Moderat Tho he died for all yet not with an intent to save all Philad Pray let me interpose I perceive there is no great difference between you Philet I must confess I was for the middle way my self till I found that Universal Redemption would not comport with Particular Election Philad Moderatus I perceive can play fast and loose and deceive us both being true to neither sometime we think we have him fast on our side and you think him as fast for you and yet he is as slippery as an Eel to us both as I could shew but time will not give me leave to day But pray tell me how you hold Christ died for all and yet did not intend their Salvation thereby Moderat Then I 'll tell you how I hold it 1. Christ died so far for all as to purchase for them the Blessings and Benefits of this World 2. He died so far for all that there is a potent Argument from thence to perswade all Men to live to him 2 Cor. 8. 15. 3. He died so far for all that the Gospel should be preached to all 4. He died so far for all that all should be raised from the Grave Rom. 14. 9. Philet I hold the same Philad So do I but did Christ die for all in such a manner and yet never intend their Salvation thereby this justly seems strange Philet Why 't is one thing to die for the Reprobate in some sense and to die for them with an intention to save them Philad As to the first I suppose you mean that God is so bountiful a God that he will not let the least act of Charity or the least appearance of Good in any go unrewarded in this Life And that Christ died for the obtaining of these lesser Mercies but yet had no love for them in order to their Salvation I have already disproved But as to your second you say that Christ died so far for all that there is a potent Argument from thence to perswade all Men to live to him but then I must prove beyond all Exceptions that God Almighty hath designs of Love to all Men and a desire after their Eternal Well-being seeing that true Love to God must first spring from the certain knowledg of God's Love to us And the Holy Ghost teacheth us 1 John 4. 19. that love to God must or ought to be kindled in the Hearts of Men by the sense of this Affection in God to Man neither as I said before can I think that any Man can heartily and cordially love God unless he believes God had a love for him And how can any use Arguments to perswade all or any Man to love and live to God whose love to them is doubtful Neither doth any Man stand bound either to use Arguments or believe them when used unless he hath a sufficient reason to do so seeing the Apostle saith Rom. 14. 23. Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin whatsoever a Man doth not having sufficient reason on which to ground his belief of the lawfulness thereof is sinful and an irregular Act and displeasing to God Prov. 19. 2. 14. 15. All Arguments are out of doors neither will wise Men use them to Persons who are necessitated by an over-ruling Power to be what they are seeing you will not say that Christ died with an intent they might be saved Philet I believe Christ's Death was sufficient for all that is to say the Death of Christ simply and in it self considered was sufficient to redeem and save all Men yea many Worlds as well as those who are redeemed and saved by it and so there is sufficient ground to perswade all Men to love and live to him Philad 'T is true the Satisfaction that Christ gave to Divine Justice was infinite his Righteousness infinite and therefore sufficient for the Redemption of this and many Worlds had they been made In this sense it is sufficient to save the Apostate Angels that fell but have the fallen Angels any sufficient ground or reason to hope for Salvation upon the absolute worth and merit of Christ's Satisfaction Philet No Christ never died to free them from their Chains of Darkness and to readmit them into the Love and Favour of God and as Moderatus told us he took not upon him the Nature of Angels therefore there is no ground of hopes for them God never by Christ provided for the Salvation of the fallen Angels this was besides the Lord's Intention Philad Well you grant that Christ died sufficiently for all yet unless you grant that he died intentionally for all that is Christ by his Death hath purchased such Grace and Favour in the sight of God for all Men that upon their repentance and believing in him they should be justified and receive forgiveness of their Sins and persevering therein shall be eternally saved the sufficiency of his Death is no sufficient ground for any Man
before wholly to be ascribed to the Grace of God in Christ as the principal and primary Cause Now as to Faith and Repentance being the Gift of God this is a truth God is said to give Faith and Repentance yea to intend the Salvation of all Men when he vouchsafeth a sufficiency of means Now Faith is taken many ways sometimes and very frequently 't is taken for the Gospel Acts 6. 7. Gal. 1. 23. So it is the Gift of God and he is said to give Faith and Repentance when he gives the Gospel which is the Word of Faith and so Faith is the Gift of God and when any Soul is by the goodness of God led to repentance God is said to give Repentance Also God gives the power or ability to repent and believe or else Man could do neither yet doth not God's Grace destroy our Duty tho God gives not only Grace necessary but also sufficient for yielding Faith and Obedience yet the Act or Duty of believing is not God's Work but Man's Heb. 11. Rom. 10. 17. James 3. 2. And the Person that is regenerate must be so far active in the Work that the Work it self may be as truly and properly ascribed unto Man and called his as it is ascribed to God and called his Gift now this you must believe unless you have so far forsaken your Reason as to say that Christ acts the Creature 's Actions and so Jesus Christ repents and Jesus Christ believes and Man doth nothing But surely we stand bound to believe repent and obey the Lord if we expect Salvation these are our own acts and 't is impossible they should be the acts of Christ for he that is said to act any action is said to do it Now if when we are exhorted to do these Duties Christ should do them for us while we sit still what sense must we make of Scripture must Jesus Christ break off his Sins by Repentance and amend his evil ways and doings or must Christ believe in Christ or walk in the steps of Christ And from hence it will infallibly follow that Persons shall be damned because God did not only make them Believers by an irresistible Power but also act their Work too Saith Paul Rom. 8. If ye through the Spirit not the Spirit without you nor ye without the Spirit intimating that Man must be an Agent in the Work it must be his own act and therefore he is not wholly passive neither have we ground to believe God will work these in such a way as shall be impossible to be frustrated Philet But if God works Conversion in a resistible way still Free-Grace loseth the triumph and Free will takes the Crown but when God works he works irresistibly Men cannot resist his Will if he works none can hinder it Philad I believe that God hath and still works and none can be able to hinder such are the Works of Creation and Redemption c. When Man was fallen none could hinder the Lord from setting his Love upon him nor hinder him from shewing Mercy to him in sending his only Son to die for them nor hinder the planting of his Will and Light in their Hearts convincing them of Sin Nor could the Jews of old or any in our days hinder or prevent God from rising early and sending his Prophets and Ministers to call Persons to Repentance nor hinder him from administring Grace and Mercy to them nor is it in the power of Man to frustrate God in raising up Persons from the dead in the Resurrection and setting the Godly with Christ in Glory and all the Rejecters of his Grace and Love in endless Misery Neither do I deny but God hath and may still if he please convert some by an irresistible Power we must not care to limit the Holy One of Israel in any of his ways yet it is not God's usual way of working to force Persons against their Wills to be Holy and to accept of Life but he is pressing by his Holy Spirit and by his Word and Ministers which is the ordinary way that the Lord takes to beget Faith c. and therefore Gospel-Ministers are said 2 Cor. 6. 1. to be workers together with God that is Ministers do co-operate with God in order to one and the same effect not that Ministers in their pressing and preaching should so work with God as to be able to do as much as God himself doth in perswading Men but rather they work after one and the same way Ministers in their preaching incline and move the Heart of Men to accept of Christ and this he doth perswadingly without forcing or necessitating their Wills to such or such Election this is God's usual way of working in the dispensation of his Divine Will Philet But I tell you 't is effected by the irresistible act of free Grace Persons are altogether passive in the work of Conversion yea have no more power to stir than Lazarus had when he had lain four days in the Grave Persons are dead in Sins and Trespasses and what less than the almighty Power of God can cause them to live a spiritual Life I do not know You ought not to believe there is any annext Power in the act of Conversion doth not the Apostle Ephes 1. 19 20. speak of the exceeding greatness of the Lord's Power wrought in them that believe according to his mighty Power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead Philad As for your urging Christ and Lazarus being both dead to prove Persons as unable to act in Conversion it is impertinent for tho the Lord in raising up Christ did the work wholly of himself by his mighty Power neither was Lazarus able to act any thing in the Grave towards restoring his Life yet in the Work of conversion the Lord comes to a Creature which he hath by free Grace furnished with Abilities to do what he requires of him And Lazarus after he heard the Voice of the Lord and received Life was active and came forth and so when Persons hear the Voice of the Lord and are thereby raised from a death in Sin or a deadly custom of Sinning to live soberly justly and godly this is said to be a raising from the Dead and a new Creation begotten again and by Faith and Repentance making new Creatures tho the Lord bestoweth Grace sufficient for the yielding to the Voice of the Lord when he calleth them by the Gospel yet through the alone proper fault of Man it becomes unfruitful for the Lord doth not usually come to Persons in such a mighty Whirlwind as 1 Kings 19. 11. to force their consent and carry them headlong to their duty and irresistibly compel them to embrace eternal Happiness and shew such a Miracle of his mighty Power as he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead or upon Lazarus when he had lain four days dead in the Grave Now it is true the Power by